What is R?

Is R the right tool for your data analysis needs?

1. A software for statistical computing and graphics

R vs other statistical software such as SPSS, SAS, STATA, Mplus, HLM etc. :

Pros

• Accessibility: R is free and open-source, while other statistical software like SPSS is proprietary software that requires expensive licenses.
  
• Extensibility: R has tons of packages available for users to download and use in their analysis. A lot of developers actively maintain their packages and many develop new packages for novel state-of-the-art analysis.
  (Optional: Table of available packages in CRAN, sorted by date of publication)
  
• Flexibility: R is highly customizable. You can customize plots, functions or even develop packages for your own needs.
  (Optional: An interesting metaphor)
  
• Reproducibility: R code for data manipulation and analysis can be written and saved in scripts, which can be run anytime to reproduce the results given the raw data and scripts.
  (Optional: A reproducible example CRAN Task View: Reproducible Research)
  
• Popularity: R has a larger and active user community, which provides a wealth of resources and support.
  (Optional: Getting Help with R)
  

Cons

• User-friendliness: Other statistical software like SPSS is generally considered to be more user-friendly and easier to learn than R, particularly for users with no programming experience.
  
• Authority: A poorly written or unreliable R package is risky, leading to errors or incorrect results. When you are unsure whether a package is trustworthy, it is recommended to check for its popularity, author reputation, and whether it is well-documented, peer-reviewed and actively maintained.
  (Optional: Packages grouped by subject area on CRAN Check how many downloads a CRAN package has? How to Evaluate R Packages? Ten simple rules for finding and selecting R packages )
  

2. A programming language for statistical computing and graphics

R is a specialized language designed for statistical computing and graphics. It is NOT a general-purpose programming language for software and web development. However, Python, a general-purpose programming language, is popular for data analysis, and shares some of R’s features like open source and a strong community. It can be a hard call if you want to choose only one. Each of them have certain strengths:

Source: Coursera, Python or R for Data Analysis: Which Should I Learn?

This page is meant to help you to decide whether R is the right tool for your analysis needs. What questions do you have about what R is used for and its pros and cons compared to alternatives? Now is a good time for you to share your questions, thoughts and comments.

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